Buy a Leaf! —

SimCity’s first post-release DLC is… a Nissan ad?

Leaf "Charging station" provides one-time boost to nearby happiness.

Throughout a launch debacle that was characterized by broken servers, temporarily scaled back features, and numerous simulation bugs, at least SimCity backers could proudly say that the game wasn't infested with any sort of annoying in-game advertising. That's no longer true, however, as the first bit of post-release downloadable content (DLC) for the game adds a Nissan Leaf charging station to your city.

The free DLC allows you to add up to five charging stations to a city, each equipped with its own large red neon NISSAN logo and an attached "dump the pump" mini-billboard. As you "watch as your Sims begin driving around in the 100% electric Nissan LEAF®," a handy EA FAQ points out, your Sim-citizens will be happier when they leave the charging station, and the neighborhood surrounding the station will get a one-time boost of happiness when the charging station is plopped down.

Somehow, the charging stations don't produce garbage or sewage, generate any pollution, or use any power, water, or workers from your town. Wow, that Nissan Leaf sure is a magical vehicle, isn't it? And, as the SimCity Origin page points out, "Your Sims aren't the only ones who can drive electric. Check out the NissanUSA.com savings calculator to find out how much you could save with the 100% electric Nissan LEAF®." In case you missed that message through Origin, the DLC is also being promoted through its own advertisements on the SimCity launcher and on billboards in the game's menu screen.

EA has been at the forefront of in-game ads since at least 2006, putting the "feature" in a numberofhigh-profilegames in the years since. In the best cases, that has led to some well-made free-to-play titles that are totally funded by players looking at a few marketing messages. It's a little more galling to see this kind of blatant advertisement inelegantly shoehorned into a game that already costs $60, even if it's in the form of a completely optional download. Still, if EA can add a bit of advertising money to its bottom line without causing a significant backlash among players, it seems likely to continue to do so.

Promoted Comments

SimCity is a city simulator. I would love if my cities could have real businesses. If McDonald's, say, wants to pay EA some money so that my commercial zones can occasionally sprout some golden arches, so much the better. We can already build certain real-world landmark buildings. Adding real-world companies is a step in the same direction.

Moreover, this is precisely the form that in-game advertising should take. It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or something, then yes, that'd be an unwanted inclusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

The problem I have is simply the timing. EA has delivered a game that is broken in a variety of important ways. Their sole priority at this point in time should be making the simulation work. It requires major rewriting to do that (either an abandonment of the agent model, or a substantially overhauled model, to include persistent agents with assigned homes and workplaces, sensible pathfinding, and proper education), and it requires a much richer set of transport options. As it is, the simulation aspect is not even beta quality.

It's for that reason that this DLC rubs me up the wrong way. EA is making [yet more] money from a broken game, rather than taking steps to fix it.

85005 posts | registered May 10, 1999

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

EA is proud to announce that your EA-approved SimCity* can now hold campaign events for real Presidential Candidate Harold H. Fisher! Holding the campaign events will improve the chances of the glorious and handsome Fisher being elected, and make your citizens 50% happier. If we're blessed enough for Fisher to be elected, your citizens will rejoice, and your city will enter a golden age of prosperity, all thanks to Fisher's compassion for the little man!

Also included: Now news reports of random crimes occurring in your city will be blamed on Presidential Candidate Harold H. Fisher's competitors! Experience an authentic experience unlike any you've seen before!

Note: Anyone who votes for Richard McFall will have their Origin account banned.

* Obviously this is for SimCity 2, as SimCity's servers will have been shut down by then.

This will totally save this episode of the SimCity Franchise and I'm now considering buying it. /s

Reading notes to EA: Re-read that in a bitterly sarcastic and scathing tone that indicates I mean the exact opposite. SimCity FFS! Sim-fricking-City. All you had to do was make it with modern graphics and you were golden. You total and utter pr**ks!

Somehow, the charging stations don't produce garbage or sewage, generate any pollution, or use any power, water, or workers from your town.

Not sure what your point is, exactly. The town I live in has several EV charging stations, all of which are 100% unattended, although I'll admit they're nowhere near as big as what's depicted in the screenshot. There is no water hook up (why would there be?) and therefore no sewage, either. What pollution would you expect an EV charging station to create that cannot be accounted for by the energy production process itself or by the vehicles themselves? Cars like the Volt and plug-in Fusion can use the same charging port, but still burn gas. Then there are lubricants and other non-combustion-related pollutants, but again, these should be assigned to the vehicle, not the charging station. Finally, I'm guessing those massive solar cells pictured on the roof are supposed to be providing all the power needed for charging the cars. I'm not sure about the practicality of such a system, but hey, this is a game where citizens go "home" to the nearest empty dwelling they come across.

I agree with the trash point, as most of their real-world equivalents either have a small wastebin nearby or are actually owned by nearby businesses that have their own wastebins. Still, it's not a stretch of the imagination to think that maybe these stand-alone charging stations have no such facilities.

It's a little more galling to see this kind of blatant advertisement inelegantly shoehorned into a game that already costs $60, even if it's in the form of a completely optional download. Still, if EA can add a bit of advertising money to its bottom line without causing a significant backlash among players, it seems likely to continue to do so.

SimCity is a city simulator. I would love if my cities could have real businesses. If McDonald's, say, wants to pay EA some money so that my commercial zones can occasionally sprout some golden arches, so much the better. We can already build certain real-world landmark buildings. Adding real-world companies is a step in the same direction.

Moreover, this is precisely the form that in-game advertising should take. It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or something, then yes, that'd be an unwanted inclusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

The problem I have is simply the timing. EA has delivered a game that is broken in a variety of important ways. Their sole priority at this point in time should be making the simulation work. It requires major rewriting to do that (either an abandonment of the agent model, or a substantially overhauled model, to include persistent agents with assigned homes and workplaces, sensible pathfinding, and proper education), and it requires a much richer set of transport options. As it is, the simulation aspect is not even beta quality.

It's for that reason that this DLC rubs me up the wrong way. EA is making [yet more] money from a broken game, rather than taking steps to fix it.

It's the first piece of extra content for Sim City. The first put out for a game that had serious issue and a huge backlash to how the company was handling it. That's pretty damning and shows exactly where EA's priorities lie. Money. Money. Money.

Meh. Cities are filthy with advertising already so it adds a level of realism to the virtual city (provided there’s other unattractive advertising plaguing your virtual cityscape).

It’s one of the better applications of in-game advertising I’ve seen thus far; I wish most ads were as easily integrated into the game. The assumption with advertising in-game was that it wouldn’t be blatant, jarring, or otherwise detracting from the experience of playing the game (a good application would be choosing real sponsors for your racing team or something like that), rarely does it turn out that way though.

I am however offended by the clear push to get you to buy a Nissan LEAF- I thought the whole point of “in-game” advertising was to send subliminal messages. (sigh) Back to the drawing board guys.

Do people really expect 90%+ of the people working on Simcity to stop working while whatever favorit bugs of yours is fixed?

DLC, changing the color of a roof is NOT DONE BY THE CODERS that fix bugs.

It doesn't matter what the process is behind their actions it matters what the message is to their customers. Basically they are saying that their priority is making as much money off a flawed product rather than fixing the issues with a product that many people have already paid good money for. It doesn't bode well for the consumer's concerns

...It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or something, then yes, that'd be an unwanted inclusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

I agree with Peter here on both points, make that Simulated environment seem a little more real is a great concept where at the right time product placement benefits everyone. I agree that EA's timing is terrible.

At this point it just seems like you paid good money to receive your burger and instead received a turd-in-a-bun and then they ask you if you want free fries with that.

SimCity is a city simulator. I would love if my cities could have real businesses. If McDonald's, say, wants to pay EA some money so that my commercial zones can occasionally sprout some golden arches, so much the better. We can already build certain real-world landmark buildings. Adding real-world companies is a step in the same direction.

Moreover, this is precisely the form that in-game advertising should take. It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or something, then yes, that'd be an unwanted inclusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

But that's the thing, it will never be realistic. The companies providing this product placement will not agree to display their brands in any kind of negative light. Those Nissan charging stations come with zero disadvantage, they don't even require power. They are the complete opposite of realistic. Taking your above example further, if McDonald's were to be added into SimCity, it would also magically run on nothingness, produce no sewage, and make population happy without, say, bringing their health down. Is that really an interesting thing to have in there?

SimCity is a city simulator. I would love if my cities could have real businesses. If McDonald's, say, wants to pay EA some money so that my commercial zones can occasionally sprout some golden arches, so much the better. We can already build certain real-world landmark buildings. Adding real-world companies is a step in the same direction.

Moreover, this is precisely the form that in-game advertising should take. It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or something, then yes, that'd be an unwanted inclusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

I have not played the game, but I totally agree with this DLC.

But I REALLY wish this game was a bit more complex. Add tons of those stations (coupled with a high avaliablity of electric cars), what would happen to the city, and surrounding cities? Right now it feels like this has to be more complex than it is so we can do some interesting simulations.

So it increases citizen happiness, but somehow doesn't consume power from the grid?

Well there you go. This isn't in-game advertising, this is in-game blowing-smoke-up-your-ass.

A generic, unsponsored electric vehicle DLC would have stations drawing power from the grid. But we don't want to piss off the advertisers, so it's a magic charging station that runs off-the-grid by using solar panels made super efficient by Nissan Fairy Dust.

SimCity is a city simulator. I would love if my cities could have real businesses. If McDonald's, say, wants to pay EA some money so that my commercial zones can occasionally sprout some golden arches, so much the better. We can already build certain real-world landmark buildings. Adding real-world companies is a step in the same direction.

Moreover, this is precisely the form that in-game advertising should take. It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or something, then yes, that'd be an unwanted inclusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

But that's the thing, it will never be realistic. The companies providing this product placement will not agree to display their brands in any kind of negative light. Those Nissan charging stations come with zero disadvantage, they don't even require power. They are the complete opposite of realistic. Taking your above example further, if McDonald's were to be added into SimCity, it would also magically run on nothingness, produce no sewage, and make population happy without, say, bringing their health down. Is that really an interesting thing to have in there?

Actually, the Leaf stations take space, and that's the most valuable commodity there is in SimCity. So they do the one thing that I really don't want them to do. I agree, though, it would be better if they were more like "proper" buildings. I would expect that to a certain extent, however, Nissan and EA are both testing the waters here, so I'm not too aggrieved at the lack of power consumption.

In any case, I think it's pretty clear that they are, in fact, happy to be shown in a negative light, which is why they're in the game at all.

That's not the end of it: I used Home Depot's store pickup option for something I ordered from its Web site, and even the ready-for-pickup e-mail confirmation - the one you must print out and take with you - had embedded advertising.

I wonder if it will come to a point of such advertising excess - if we haven't roared past it already - that the text of necessary regulation to control it will fill a Library of Congress all by itself.